Demographic changes affect housing market

A "smart growth" community is a livable community as defined in my first column on that topic. But, what else is smart growth and how do we make it work for our community and the Acadiana area?

First, we need to acknowledge that growth and change are usually an inevitable fact of life.

Next, we need to involve our citizens in making a plan for the future that would ensure a wide choice of housing options for people of all incomes and ages; protect farmland and natural areas; revitalize, and not undermine, the places we have already built; and provide options for how to get around.

The hope is that by doing these things, our community will get better as it grows.

Why are we just now beginning to hear about smart growth, what has happened that we look at growth differently now than we did 30 or 40 years ago, and what has changed? According to a demographics study by the National Association of Realtors, there are more single person households than ever before.

Married couples with children are only 23 percent of the population as compared to 40 percent in 1970. In addition, as baby-boom households become empty-nesters, the fastest growing household type is couples without minor children living at home. By 2020, nearly one third of the households will be empty-nesters and the occupants will live more years than any previous generations.

At the same time, the shift from an industrial to an information economy is making new arrangements possible. The demand for a traditional subdivision is changing and so is our community.

One of the ways communities begin to address these demographic changes is through form-based codes.

Conventional zoning was created to separate homes from smokestacks, stockyards and other noxious uses. Today, critics say, it often is used to separate compatible uses from one another.

The separation of uses requires a car trip for every activity, and so zoning codes demand wide roads and onsite parking. As an alternative, planners have been developing form-based codes that not only address use but also how a community should look and feel. The codes may utilize graphics and illustrations along with text to indicate what kind of place is envisioned. Traditional zoning and form-based codes are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Now is the time to encourage this new type of zoning when feasible in order to keep Acadiana a special place to live and work. It's smart growth.

- Mary Jane Bauer is CEO of

Realtor Association of Acadiana.

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Demographic changes affect housing market

A 'smart growth' community is a livable community as defined in my first column on that topic. But, what else is smart growth and how do we make it work for our community and the Acadiana area?First,